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Homeowner Fed Up With Drivers Using Yard As Shortcut

Reporter: Parrish Alleman

Homeowner Fed Up With Drivers Using Yard As Shortcut

Friday, June 15, 2012
An East Wichita homeowner says he's fed up with drivers using his front yard as a shortcut and just wants someone to make them keep off.

He has spent hundreds of dollars, not to mention countless hours of yard work repairing the damage to his yard near 159th St. E. and Kellogg.

Steven Tillman works hard to keep his yard looking nice and neat, but he says one corner of his property is putting a strain on his green thumb.

"I've patched those spots I don't know how many times, they don't get a chance to bed so they come up real easy,” Tillman said about his lawn.

Tillman says in the five years he's lived in his house, drivers have always cut through the property at the end of his street. But about two years ago the city added two barricades. He says the short-cut seekers didn't stop, they just swerved over to his yard.

"Normally it seems like I’ll come home from work and especially if it's been raining and I’ll just have mud all over my drive way and I can tell they've been back there,” Tillman said.

Tillman tells us he's seen dirt bikes and four wheelers cruise through his yard, plus delivery trucks heading back to a property on the other side. Just this week he tells us he spotted a truck carrying hay parked outside his house.

"So I walked outside and he got out of his truck and he asked me was this my house and I said yes and he said is it OK to drive across your property to go deliver to the owner back there and I said no it isn't,” Tillman said.

We went to that property and spoke with someone by phone. They told us they've been out of town for the last six months and said they didn't know anything about delivery trucks cutting through Tillman's property.

Tillman says he wants whoever is using his yard as a shortcut to stop and show a little respect for other people's property.

"I'm sure they wouldn't like it if someone was continually using their property as an entryway to something that they really shouldn't be on anyway,” Tillman said.

Tillman says he's filed a police report and if that doesn't stop people from cutting through his yard he's thinking about installing a heavy duty fence at his property line.